When Sister Rita Mandella was asked how she wanted to be remembered, she said, “I loved God, my family, my Franciscan Sisters, and friends.” Indeed, the theme she chose for her funeral was from 1 Corinthians 16:14: “Your every act should be done with love.” Rita will also be remembered for being easy to tease […]
Sister Helen Vahling embraced going home to God on July 29, 2023. After a stroke in June, which caused her to be moved from the StoryPoint Memory Care unit to Ascension Villa Franciscan nursing home, she was accepted into hospice care when she could not swallow. The ability to swallow eventually returned so that she […]
In mid-June, 2023, Sister Pat was happily welcoming visitors to the new home she had moved to early in the year as Our Lady of Angels was preparing to close. Along with Sisters Ann Freiburg and Mary Agnes Cross, she was the first to arrive at Heritage Woods Assisted Living in Minooka, Illinois. They would […]
Our Sister Carole von Buelow was born the youngest of three children to Bodo and Winifred (Geary) von Buelow on December 27, 1937, on Chicago’s north side. She and her sister Carlene and brother Robert were raised in a loving and supportive German-Irish Catholic family. She graduated from St. Clement grade school and high school […]
On April 24, 2023, after a short time in hospice care, Sister Laura Filipas died quickly, peacefully, and unexpectedly. After 88 years of loving her family and then her religious community, she passes on that legacy of love to all of us. Some years ago, in creating a document that might be called a spiritual […]
Sister Donna Marie Baier was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 26, 1936, to Wilhelmina (Jaeger) and George Baier. One of five children, Sister Donna Marie (Dorothy Elizabeth) had one brother, Brother Leonard George, FSC, and three sisters, Sister M. George Baier, OSF, Bernice (Harry) Bloom, Beatrice (Kenneth) Leyendecker, all of whom have preceded her […]
On the evening of March 26, 2023, in the company of loved ones, our sister, Lucille Adelmann, was led peacefully from this life into paradise. As a hope-filled healer, a gifted comforter and a courageous advocate over the course of her ninety-six years, we can imagine that among the angels who came to carry Lucy […]
Early in the morning of February 10, 2023, the heartfelt prayer of our Sister Thadine Kaminski was answered. The long-awaited time had come to complete her journey home to God, and she was prepared. Trusting confidently in God’s gracious love and divine mercy, she believed that the sufferings of the past and present moment were […]
On the afternoon of February 8, 2023, our sister, Janet Rieden, was surrounded with the loving presence of family, Sisters and dear friends, as the final hours of her Christian journey were drawing near. Conformed throughout her life to the Word of God, it was most fitting that the Gospel reading for the day (Matthew: […]
“I’m going to have to do some getting used to it. In the first place I’m going back to my hometown. But I know Mansfield more than I do Joliet.” These were Sister Bernard Marie Campbell’s words expressed eight years ago to a reporter for the Mansfield News Journal who interviewed her and Sister Paula […]